4
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and the Legal Chronicle
RISE OF A COMPOSER
A Joyous Pesach to All!
Friendship Plasterers
t4 Building Supplies
March 2 -
Aaron Copland Interprets the Spirit of America
A JOYOUS PESACH TO ALL
By ROGER DORFMAN
Editor's Note—American musicians are proudly celebrating the
40th anniversary of Aaron Copland, who in addition to being
15101 LaSALLE BLVD.
one of thh world's foremost "moderns" has done so much
as any other man to develop native American music, both
UN. 2-0605
in personalities and in idiom. Whether in swing music or in
the more classical forms, musical composition in this country
has found an extraordinary champion and interpreter in this
American Jew born in Brooklyn in 1902. Today he is one of
the leaders of America who insist that democracy can be
expressed through music as well as in politics—and the on.2,
Passover Greetings!
he feels, is an encouragement to the other. He and Irving
Berlin are but two of the Americans distilling our musical spirit.
The 40th birthday of a com- Negroes. 1 mention it because it
poser is likely to warrant greater was there that I spent the first
acclaim than a similar milestone 2U years of my life. Also, because
in the life of a business or pro- it fills me with mild wonder each
LUMBER - MILLWORK fessional man. Perhaps the ans- time I realize that a musician was
wer is in the traditional axiom born on that street."
that a man is born with music
Because it was a musician who
but trained to business. When Ser- was
10650 Cloverdale
born and not made on that
gei Koussevitzky raised his baton street, Aaron
Copland is today
recently to conduct the New York one of America's
HO. 4141
great interpre-
Philharmonic in a rendition of
of her own musical history
"Quiet City" by Aaron Copland, ters
well as one of the most not-
it was the 40th time that an or- as
able contributors to her musical
chestra had played the symphonic development.
poem by this outstanding Ameri-
With typical Jewish concern
A Joyous Pesach to All!
can-Jewish composer.
their children should have
In describing his birth in Brook- that
equipment with which
lyn in 1902, Copland has written: a to cultural
go into the world, the Copland
"I was born on a street in parents invested in the musical
N. NALBANDIAN & CO. Brooklyn that can only be de-
of each of their five
scribed as drab. It had none of education
children. Not because they ex-
the
garish
color
of
the
ghetto,
Wholesale
any return but because they
none of the charm of an old New pected
believed It was part of the re-
Tobaccos and Confections
England thoroughfare, or even the sponsibility of parenthood to en-
rawness of a pioneer street. It large the horizon of children. At
was simply drab. It probably re- 13, Aaron began learning piano.
9111 JOS. CAMPAU AVE.
sembled most one of the outer To him it was as hackneyed a
districts of lower middle-class task as to listen to his brother
Trinity 24313
London, except that it was peo- scraping at the violin while his
pled largely by Italians, Irish and sister did the piano accompani-
ment. It made no difference wheth-
er it was popular or classical
music as far as the parents were
concerned. The object was to be
able to read notes and to play
PASSOVER GREETINGS TO ALL
with some degree of perfection.
The musical education involved in
taking the youngsters to hear con-
certs or operas was considered
extraneous. In fact, as far as
Aaron was concerned, whatever
he picked up was over the obser-
vation of his people that the older
children had taken up enough
of the family resources without
showing that they had any spe-
cial musical gifts.
Copland's first systematic train-
ing in music, after two years by
the routine piano lessons, began
at 15 when. he was accepted by
the composer, Rubin Goldmark.
In learning harmony and com-
8701 GRINNELL AVE.
position from Goldmark, Copland
became familiar with Chopin and
Beethoven and Wagner. By 1921
his special talents had been suffi-
ciently revealed to warrant his
departure for Paris, where he
studied piano as well as composi-
tion with Nadia Boulanger until
1924, when he returned to New
York—already hailed as "tal-
ented."
The intuitive feeling for music
is nowhere better evident than in
the direction which Copland's
musical interest took. Goldmark
had no appreciation of such people
as Debussy, Ravel and Scriabin,
who were in those days being de-
nounced as the masters of caco-
phony. In fact, Goldmark told his
pupil that the most horrible ex-
amples of the corruption of musi-
cal art were to be found in the
harmonies of these men. But that
seemed only to intensify Copland's
belief that music to be appreciated
by its contemporaries must reflect
their spirit, their anxieties, their
social and economic surroundings.
It was in Paris that Copland
first came to know Koussevitzky,
who was then conducting at the
Paris Opera. An experimenter,
Koussevitzky could be depended
SAM GRANADIER
upon to offer the works of Pro-
kofieff, Milhaud, Schoenberg and
Stravinsky, among others.
Copland was only 22 when he
MY BEST WISHES TO THE ENTIRE
returned to America after three
years of the most intensive train-
COMMUNITY FOR A JOYOUS PASS-
ing in modern music that any
American up to that time had
OVER. MAY WE ALL AWAKE TO A
received. He had composed a one-
act ballet, a Passacaglia for piano
CONSCIOUSNESS OF OUR LOYALTY
and a Rondino for a string quar-
tet, among others. One of his
TO THIS COUNTRY, AND OUR
compositions—"As It Fell Upon a
Day," song for voice, flute and
DUTY TO PRESERVE ITS DEMO-
clarinet—was actually performed
at a Paris concert in February
CRATIC WAY OF LIFE.
of 1924. His Passacaglia was
played a few months after his
return to New York at a lecture
recital of the League of Corn-
posers.
Some years ago; in an autobi-
ographical piece written for the
Magazine of Art, Copland ex-
amined that period of his early
training and concluded:
"Looking backward 15 years, I
am rather amazed at my own
5th Floor—United Artists Bldg.
CH. 4193
ignorance of musical conditions in
America. I mean, of course, con-
BRIGGS LUMBER
CO.
Thornton
Tandem Co.
S. A. GRANADIER
Young Men's Tailor
See COMPOSER—Page 9
TASTY BAR-13•Q
3600 WOODWARD
8548 GRAND RIV I
FOR FREE DELIVER
TErrace 2-9577
'
TYler 4-9898
— We Never Close —
HOLIDAY GREETINGS
Royal Oak 1001 &
Machine Co.
621 East Fourth St., Royal Oak
ELMHURST 6580
A JOYOUS PESACH TO ALL:
Kraetke Tool Co., Inc.
Builders - Designers
Tools, Dies and Special Machinery
Engineering and Machine Designing
2493 E. GRAND BLVD.
TRINITY 1-4060
A JOYOUS PESACH TO ALL:
GRAYSON'S
for Beautiful Dresses
3 SHOPS
1051 WOODWARD AVE.
13963 WOODWARD AVE.
10721 GRAND RIVER AVE.
A JOYOUS PESACH TO ALL:
CENTRAL FACTORY AND
OVERALL SUPPLY CO.
7043 E. PALM?*
PLAZA 8180
PASSOVER GREETINGS TO ALL
DAIGLE
ENGINEERING
CO.
Designers of
JIGS, FIXTURES
and
MACHINERY'
J. A. DAIGLE
12525 Gratiot Ave.
ARlington 6232
-4 2